Length:
0.2 miles. Time: 15 minutes, round trip. Difficulty:
1. Trailhead: This trail starts 1.5 miles, or about
fifty minutes, from the beginning of the Reef Bay Trail on Centerline
Road . The trailhead is marked and much of the path borders an old stone
wall.

After a 5-minute
walk from the main Reef Bay Trail, the path leads to a small freshwater
pool formed by a gut, or streambed, known as the Living Gut.
In the rainy season, you can sometimes enjoy the view of a waterfall.

Crayfish and shrimp live in the pool, but they may be difficult to see
because of algae or the water's dark color. Because this is a rare supply
of fresh water, you'll hear lots of birds; near dark, also lots of insects
humming overhead, waiting to descend.

The petroglyphs
are difficult to see, only faint impressions in the rock
at the pool waterline. They vary in shape, style and location and it's
likely that each new group of inhabitants left their own graffiti.

Most of the drawings, some of which are attributed to the Taino
Indians, are located at the far right end of the pool. However,
at the opposite corner are a very obvious cross and several faces. This
watering spot is an interesting cultural crossroad of those who've lived
on St. John.

The first inhabitants
lived in the Reef Bay Valley around 3,000 years ago. They were hunter-gatherers
who were replaced by an agricultural group that arrived about 1,000
years later.

Columbus reported the island was deserted when he sailed
by. The Danes arrived in 1718 and by 1726 Reef Bay Valley was the site
of 12 plantations.

Petroglyph Pool
may hold a bombshell secret.

It's something called the Fat God, an eerie, overweight figure carved
into the hard rock wall, and one man thinks it was drawn by people from
Teotihuacan, the pre-Aztec civilization that built
the huge pyramids to the sun and the moon near Mexico City.

Robert McCartor,
a former history professor at Texas Tech who's made proving his theory
a lifelong project, explains his theory about the Fat God.

"No one seems to know what he's the god of, but The fat face, fancy
vestments and strange pointed hat are ubiquitous to Mesoamerica,"
he says.